Fujitsu may scale back PDP business: report

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Japan's Fujitsu is thinking of drastically downsizing its
involvement in, or even withdrawing from, the plasma-display panel
business that it pioneered globally more than 30 years ago, a
report said on Friday.

Fujitsu has entered into talks with Hitachi to sell it a major
portion or all of its stake in their 50-50 joint venture, Fujitsu
Hitachi Plasma Display, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said
without citing sources.

Demand for plasma-display panels is expected to grow but Fujitsu
is constantly required to make huge investments in cutting-edge
technologies to survive amid global competition, the
mass-circulation daily said.

Fujitsu started developing the panels in 1968 and succeeded in
making a large color panel in 1995 for the first time in the
world.

The group plans to also transfer the basic patents it holds on
the panels to Hitachi, which positions the product as the crucial
component for flat-screen television sets, the paper said.

A Fujitsu spokeswoman said the company had made no decisions
about its plasma-display panel operations.

"We are always having talks with Hitachi as the business partner
(in the venture), but we cannot comment on something that has not
been formally decided," she said.